Tomorrow Stories #7



They should title one of Splash Brannigan's adventures, "Ink & Pain!"

Creative Team: Alan Moore-writer; Hilary Barta, Melinda Gebbie, Jim Baikie & Rick Veitch-art, Todd Klein-letters, Bad@$$....NOPE, Not writing that anymore!.....Alex Bleyaert & Nick Bell-colors, Scott Dunbier-editor

What kind of professional calls themselves Bad@$$? One who is neither "badass" nor professional. Don't know the guy but this sounds like the same kind of nonsense as some spotted teenage loser giving themselves some kind of he-man action hero name to compensate for feelings of inadequacy.

You know; like Cody Starbuck.


Hey....wait a second.........

Synopsis: Splash Brannigan-

Daisy Screensaver hands in the art pages for the latest issue of Sarcastic Thug, to her editor, at Kaput Comics ("One day, all comics will be kaput!"). Well, technically, she hands it out, as he is standing on the building ledge, about to commit suicide. Daisy and Splash then head to the Calorie Gallery (funded by art patron Valerie Calorie), to take in the exhibits. They start with the Dutch Masters (no one painted a better cigar!) and move on to the French Impressionists (like Peter Sellers) and Daisy tells Splash to come and take a look at the work of Maintenance, but upon seeing the closet filled with mops and cleaning products, remarks that, after Marcel Duchamp, it has all been said before. They are then alerted to an installation piece, as Mom & Pop Art proceed to hold up the gallery....



Splash interrupts the robbery, to the dismay of an art critic, who was feeling the piece, and Mom & Pop use his Hyper-Pitchfork to enter the works of art, starting with Whistler's Mother. Splash follows and it turns out Ma Whistler was a little lonely and asks Splash if he is single?



What follows is a romp through an Impressionist work (I can't find an exact match, but it's a seaside piece), Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," Da Vinci's "Last Supper" (as opposed to Micheangelo's "The Penultimate Supper").....



Van Gogh, Bosch (with Snuffy Smith added, for good measure), until they crash back out of the paintings and onto the floor. The art patrons soon whip out their check books and offers millions for the various ink splotches left by Splash and he ends up taking up a career in modern art, with his trilogy "Audit," "Divorce" and "The Comics Journal."

Cobweb-
Cobweb, or GrooveWeb, as she is known here, and Clarice are walking along, in the Swinging 60s. They are digging the enlightened and happening scene, unrestrained by the boundaries of Squaresville. Right on! They meet up with a guru, Buhu-Yuhu, who really digs their chakras (and looks suspiciously like The Yellow Kid) and he invites them into his ashram van, where there is lots of free love, though mostly in service to the guys (especially the guru, who is frantically trying to remove the Veils of Illusion from the ladies' bodies). They see that this spiritual plane is strictly Tourist Class. They move on to a free rock concert, in a park, where they meet some Stanists, whose leader can't spell, and who offers them Cool Ade. The master says that listening to the "Melanie" album, backwards, gives you the spiritual keys and things like "Kill Wayne Newton." They l;eave this Magical Mystery Tour, while a bit loopy and start spouting jibberish, which gets them signed to a gig at the Filthmore, singing protest songs. The gig is interrupted by the Largely Symbolic Liberation Army and the girls are tied up and carried away, to be indoctrinated, in the Largely Symbolic Revolution, where Chicks Have A Place In the Movememnt. Their leader is looking forward to handling the indoctrination, when the women of the movement turn out to be men from HALFSISTER (Higher American Law Force, Surplus initials Spelling The End Result). They are offered jobs as spies, but in the Underground Comix scene, at Vast Gasp Comix. The publisher thinks there is a place for them, right after they service The freckle Fiend, Mr Unnatural, and the Smack Siblings (on a roach infested mattress).



They decline and try high brow comics, where they meet with the boss of Splayboy and find themselves in high end comics, who thinks the two liberated ladies are perfect for their sophisticated satire....



First American-

FA relates to his nephews Hooey, Gooey and Patooie what life was like in the 20th Century, which seems so long ago (this was published in April of 2000). He begins in 1890, where he is partying with Henry Ford, Al Jolson and Josephine Baker, on New Years Eve, when their antics crash the bunk beds (of what appears to be Little Nemo) and they leave the party in a horse drawn carriage, where FAfires a blunderbuss to make the horses go faster, giving Henry Ford the idea to invent the car. Henry Ford followed that up by directing Stagecoach and pardoning Richard Nixon. he then goes to see the Wright Brothers, Frank and lloyd, who have built flying architecture to help Charles Lindbergh search for his kidnapped baby, stolen by the childless Amelia Earhart. Then WW2 broke out, where the world was divided between the forces of moustached evila and the valiant clean-shaven Allies.....



FA is there when Kennedy is shot, where he put away his blunderbuss and pointed at the grassy knoll, as to the origin of the shots that killed President Kennedy. he marries John Lennon, but the rest of the Beatles don't like him and pen their album Let Us Bee. FA creates the moon landings, fights more moustache-clad evil (Castro, Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh) and then reunites with Henry Ford, who has become president and beaten him out for the role of Han Solo, in Star Wars. More battles with moustaches (Khomeini and Saddam Hussein), uses his blunderbuss to help the Russians with their problem at Chernobyl, tears down the Berlin Wall (after firing his blunderbuss in the cab of a semi truck, causing the driver to swerve into it) and then inspired Bill Gates and Pacman to create the internet as a means of delivering porn. He then drives a famous princess around in France and the century ends with a non-moustache war in the Balkans.

US Angel tells the kids a slightly different version.....



Greyshirt-

A cab driver is ending his night. he doesn't have his hack license yet and is trying to avoid getting pulled over by cops. he drives carefully, takes care of his car (brand new super rbakes) and wears his seatbelt. He takes the backstreets home, hoping to avoid any cops, when someone stumbles out in front of him and he hits them...



He panics and drives on, but his conscience won't let him and he turns back. he doesn't find the guy, but another man waves him over. He tries to tell him that he is off duty, but the guy insists on talking to him and sticks a gun in his face and tells him to drive around, to find the guy he shot. They spot him and the hood makes the driver try to run him down, in an alley. He does what he is told; but then slams on the brakes. The hood, who isn't belted in, goes flying through the windshield. Greyshirt and the cabbie scoop him up and put him in the back seat, then the cabbie takes them to the police station......



Thoughts: Splash Brannigan is a fun little satire of the art world, particularly the critics and those in the business of selling art, rather than creating it. Moore and Barta demonstrate that the so-called world of "high art" is just as driven by commerce as the "low arts," and is probably even worse about it. He takes potshots at art criticism and also the phony line of BS fed to customers to get them to fork over huge sums for works of "art," which are not necessarily works of great genius so much as a good story. It has a lot of fun gags, like Splash's comment that he needs to make an eye appointment, as everything in the Impressionist painting is kind of blurry; and, he surfs the Great Wave off Kanegawa. he makes a complete mess of the Last Supper. Barta draws heavily on the Wally Wood school of Mad sight gags and graffiti, with things like a Kevorkian billboard, as Daisy's editor is out on the ledge, contemplating suicide, not to mention the additions of Snuffy Smith and Disney's Pluto, to Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, in the third panel of the triptych (representing the Last Judgement, expulsion to Hell, for their sins).

Cobweb is drawn in the style of Will Elder, on Little Annie Fannie and provides a critique of the so-caleld liberation of the 60s, especially yhe counter-culture and the alternative comic world, particularly from a female perspective that is probably very much coming from Melinda Gebbie. The Yellow Kid is used to satirize the various Indian and other "gurus" who spent more time exploring the earthly pleasures of the female gender than spiritual enlightenment and that the concept of "free love" seemed to be very male-centric. It then moves on to satirizing hippie fads, like vegetarianism (not legitimate vegetarians as much as those who jumped on the bandwagon and then quickly abandoned it because they wanted a cheeseburger) and Satanism, pointing out that most were frauds or just using that as a cover for their own murderous desires. Then it is protest of 60s Protest folk music and the promoters who exploited people and the fact that many didn't have that much to say about things or at least nothing particularly deep. Again, it is aimed more at those who rode the coattails of the trailblazers. Then, it is a satire of "revolution," with various phony Left Wing movements, who were more interested in attention than change, with groups like the SLA, who kidnapped Patty Hearst singled out. from there, we move to the world of Underground Comix, which proved just as hostile to women as the above-ground world, to many of the female creators. Gebbie & Moore take some definite potshots at Last Gasp and owner Ron Turner, the top publisher of the Undergounds, suggesting that women might get showcased in exchange for sexual favors. Now, Last Gasp published the first all-female anthology, It Ain't Me Babe and the subsequent Wimmins Comix; but, Gebbie draws "Vast Gasp" as the company name on the shirt of the "publishing magnate" which is not much of an alteration from Last Gasp, which is why I assume it is a shot at Ron Turner. Mostly, it is a shot at the buys' club atmosphere of much of the Underground world, which was the genesis of It Ain't Me Babe, as a place for women creators to be paid for their work. The magnate in this comic might just be a stand in for various people or it might be meant as Turner; I'm not that deeply educated on the behind-the-scenes side of the Undergrounds.

The strip ends with final shots at Playboy and Hugh Hefner, for passing off sex-themed material as sophisticated satire, when it was often just as juvenile....just better drawn and written. They have a point, though Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fannie strips did contain a lot of cultural satire, in the spirit of Mad, but with more aspirations of "high culture." In the end, it is more about naked women and sex, both in Annie and Grooveweb.

First American is a bit of a satire of all of the Millennial hoohah and the rather simplified and muddled history of the 20th Century presented in such pieces. It also satirizes America's tendency to make all history about this country and to get much of it wrong, because of popular culture, rathern than facts. most Americans, if asked, will probably say Henry Ford invented the automobile, since the Ford Company promoted that notion, as much as anyone and we can't give credit to some German guy. I like the obfuscation of Henry Ford with John Ford, Gerald Ford and Harrison Ford. Surprised they didn't also confuse him with Henry Fonda. The concept of reducing 20th Century conflict down to moustaches vs clean shaven is brilliant and works quite well, as a metaphor, though on the Soviet side of things it gets a little murky, as after Stalin, they are a clean-shaven bunch, from Khrushchev through Gorbachev (and post-Soviet Yeltsin and Putin). It is worth noting that the US hasn't had a president with facial hair since William Howard Taft, in 1913. With the UK, you only have to go back to Harold McMillan.

Greyshirt is yet another Eisner morality tale pastiche, but is nicely told, with the repeated panels as seen through the cab windshield. These aren't groundbreaking; but, as Spirit pastiches go, Veitch and Moore capture the voice and look quite well. They never really turn these into satire of The Spirit and pretty much just make Greyshirt a knockoff, so that they can do their own versions of Eisner. Call them Spirit cover versions, if you will.

In public.

Sorry, Dusty Rhodes joke that only pro wrestling fans will get.

Looking at the letters page, the consensus seems to be that Jack B Quick was the most popular feature (and is now gone, for a bit) and First American is probably next, as people find it amusing. Cobweb seems to be the least favorite, as many suggest they have no idea what is going on, half the time. Greyshirt isn't grabbing many, apart from Eisner fans, who recognize it for what it is. I can see that as Jack B Quick and First American are the most accessible, and Cobweb is probably the most idiosyncratic. On the surface, it is cheesecake and sex, but there is a lot of subversion going on, though some of it comes across better than others. The Dare Wright pastiche and the Surrealist piece, in issue 5 are probably the most "out there." others have been more recognizable, with lesbian pulp novel pastiches, EC sci-fi, Little Archie, and this 60s romp (assuming you are old enough to have experienced the 60s, live or via the relatively recent media, like me).

This series continues to be the red-headed stepchild of the line, in terms of popularity; but, I like it and the funny stuff amuses me and the thought-provoking mostly hits the right spots in my brain, except for that Surrealist bit in issue #5. My brain just isn't wired for Surrealism and Dada. The Marx Brothers and Looney Tunes are about as close as I get. dare Wright I knew because we carried her children's books and one look said that this was really messed up stuff. We also, initially, had copies of Little Black Sambo, which annoyed the hell out of me; but, that is the price of a First Amendment. I wasn't happy about having Mein Kampf on the shelf; but, at least it is there to demonstrate that Hitler was one sick little @#$%, in his own words. I was more uncomfortable with the number of people who seemed to buy it or look through it who didn't seem to be trying to understand the Holocaust or study the interwar years and the rise of the Nazis. Sometimes, in bookselling, seeing a grouping of books by a customer told you all you needed to know about them. I once came across a stack of books left out by someone, with a mix of YA stuff and photography and some other subjects and the colelctive whole just screamed "potential pedophile" in my brain. There was just a disturbing mix of imagery that made a creepy whole, when you pieced the individuals parts together. I saw a few stacks like that (not pedophile, but just disturbing, either psychologically or politically).

Anyway, next time, more fun in Neopolis!

Sometimes I think the fans were fine with cheesecake and tease and thinly veiled eroticism but drew the line at actually thinking about the theme.  I also think that Melinda Gebbie doesn't get enough credit in her collaborations with Alan, which you could probably extend to most of his artist collaborators.

I'm re-reading all of the ABC books as well, starting with Tom Strong. I'm up to issue 13. 
I'm debating on reading the non-Moore issues (Hogan) and series written. I sort of remember liking Terra Obscura. 

Gebbie is a masterful artist, although I suspect her specific style is too undergroundy for the average ABC Comics reader.  I was not a fan of Lost Girls, but Gebbie's artwork in it is a grand achievement.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #5



ABOUT !@#$%&* TIME!

Seriously, it was about 8 months between issues 4 and 5!

Creative Team: Alan Moore-snail-like writer, Kevin O'Neil-Glacial artist, William Oakley-excessive calligraphied letters, Benedict Dimagmaliw-tiny brushstroke coloring, Scott Dunbier-completely bald after pulling his hair out, over missed deadlines.

Synopsis: 8 months ago, Mr Hyde, Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray had discovered the stolen Cavorite, on the warship of the Devil Doctor, had stolen it back, and rode its anti-gravity waves up through the Thames and then splashed back down in the river, to be picked up by Nemo and the Nautilus. They then turned it over to Campion Bond, who took it to the Mysterious M, who turned out not to be Mycroft Holmes; but, rather, Professor James Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime!

Does that mean that Sherlock Holmes was the Duke of Wellington, of Law & Order?

Oh, and, Hawley Griffin, aka The Invisible Man, "disappeared" and most likely followed Bond to meet with M, because, what else would he be doing?

We start out at Reichenbach Falls, in Switzerland, in the year 1891. Holmes begs a moment to leave a note for Watson and then places it in a silver cigarette case, complete with the Question Mark figure symbol of the League.

Question Mark figure?



Not that one; this one....



We see things progress as written by Dr John Watson, then see what happened to Moriarty....



He is found by Campion Bond and Col Sebastian Moran, who work for Military Intelligence Group 5....under Prof Moriarty. Holmes was led to believe that Moriarty was a criminal mastermind, rather than the government's secret operator and spy master. Moriarty is battered and has some broken bones, but is very alive. We see the purpose of Moriarty's cover, as a crime lord....



MI-5 could control London's underworld, via Moriarty, thereby keeping it in check, while also using it to do its other work. Moriarty return and grew in influence until he headed the League, despite the objections of Mycroft Holmes. Moriarty muses on how the criminal mastermind persona has grown to be as real as the head of military intelligence. In bother personas, the Devil Doctor was an enemy and the Cavorite posed a threat to the doctor, which is why he stole it. Now that Moriarty has it back and the doctor's war chariot is destroyed, he can finish his own. Moriarty commends Bond on the League's work, even if they don't know who they were really working for. As he departs, a chuckle lets us know that one member, Griffin, does know.

Griffin leaves the building, after murdering a police constable and taking his uniform. He moves through the foggy streets of London, to get to where the Nautilus is moored. Onboard, Mina is berating Nemo for sending Griffin to spy on Bond, though everyone else thinks it was sensible and even Mina admits that she didn't trust Bond. The subject of her fury with Quatermain comes up and Mina thinks he hates her, as a woman, and Dr Jeckyll suggests the opposite, while Quatermain complains to Nemo that Mina is an infuriating woman, though Nemo thinks she is like all Western women, defying their man and dressing like whores. They spot Griffin, in the police uniform and get him aboard, before anyone sees the uniform, without an occupier. He relays the news of Moriarty and his war machine and Nemo figures he intends to bomb the East End, to destroy the Devil Doctor.

Mina and Allan head for Battersea Fun Fair (mentioned by Bond, as to the site of their war machine) to try to stop it reaching the sky, while nemo pursues a plan that might destroy it, from the ground. Allan and Mina take a handsome cab to Battersea, while Nemo searches for something. Jeckyll realizes that Wapping is close to Limehouse and the aerial attack may be calculated to destroy them, as witnesses, too. Nemo finds what he is looking for, something with a reference to Dr Samuel Ferguson's expedition. (See Jules Verne's Five Weeks in a Balloon).

Allan and Mina's coach is unable to get through traffic, as the streets are choked with people, who are staring up at the sky and gasping. They soon see why....



Allan and the Sundered Veil-
Quatermain, Randolpgh Carter and John Carter sees visions of their future lives, via the time gem. Randolph sees a horrific thing, coming from another dimension. John sees a bare-breasted woman, riding a six-legged reptile, across red sands. Allan sees himself in an opium den and with a woman, having adventures. the Time Traveler has to repair his machine, for his own destiny. When the others accept their fate, they disappear to the world of that future.

Thoughts: So, we discover how Moriarty survived Reichenbach Falls, just as Sherlock Holmes is revealed to have done, in "The Adventure of the Empty House," when he makes himself known to Dr Watson. he reveals that he faked his death and the signs of it, knowing that Watson would employ his deductive methods to come to that conclusion. He then wandered to Tibet, Persia, Mecca and Khartoum. he returns to London, wary of assassins with air rifles. That is a reference to Col. Sebastian Moran, who was Moriarty's chief assassin, who is out to kill Holmes. Together, they dupe Moran and capture him, turning him over to Lestrade, to be tried for various crimes.

As there, Moran, here, is an agent of Moriarty and MI-5, along with Campion Bond. After this series, British fantasy/horror writer Kim Newman would produce a series of Moriarty and Moran stories, paralleling the Holmes stories, with the pair acting as Consulting Criminals, just as Holmes and Watson are Consulting Detectives. We see that Moriarty was M, head of the League, using them to regain the Cavorite from Fu Manchu, the unnamed Devil Doctor, due to copyright still being in effect, when this was written (he is now in the public domain, for his earliest stories). Moriarty schemes to destroy Fu Manchu, with his own aerial warship, and doesn't care who ends up collateral damage, as Fu Manchu rules from the Limehouse District, in London's East End. Hundreds of innocents will likely die, too, as well as the League, who are at a dock in Wapping, just a stone's throw from Limehouse. Moriarty eliminates Fu Manchu and his minions. His criminal ambitions are influencing his intelligence work, as he seeks greater and greater power.

Nemo didn't trust Campion Bond and faked the presence of Griffin, when Bond picked up the Cavorite, so that he could follow, unseen, and learn who Bond's master is. Meanwhile, Mina is presented the idea that Allan may be infatuated with her, and she with him, despite protests.

At Moriarty's HQ, we see Masonic symbols, adding the idea of the Mason's controlling the British government, v positions. This isn't that far fetched, as many members of the police hierarchy and other government functionaries have been members of the Masonic Lodges. several US presidents, including George Washington, were Masons, fueling conspiracy theories of Masonic control of society. The more likely reality is that people who are inclined to pursue positions of authority and power are likely to seek entry into organizations that allow them to meet people of great influence, to further their aims, such as Masonic Lodges, university fraternities (and sororities) as well as professional organizations. As a young officer, I was greatly encouraged to join the Supply Corps Association, while at Supply Corps School, but I detest such things (I'm firmly in the camp of Groucho Marx, avoiding any organization that would have me as a member); but, it soon became abundantly clear that to move up into the senior ranks, within the Supply Corps, membership was all but required. Another reason I didn't make the Navy a career.

Holmes' cigarette case suggests he was associated with the League and government intelligence work. he was, via brother Mycroft, first seen in the story, "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter." Mycroft is said to be a functionary of the British government, in "The Adventure of the Bruce-Parrington Plans," in which plans for a submarine are stolen. in fact, sometimes Mycroft is the government. Others have taken up this idea, including Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, where Mycroft is revealed to be head of the British Secret Service, and tales of the Loch Ness Monster are a cover for an advanced submarine, sought by German agents. Several writers of Holmes pastiches have used the idea of Mycroft working in intelligence, in their work, including Xavier Maumejean, in the Tales of the Shadowmen Vol 2 anthology, in the story "Be Seeing You," where Sherlock is held prisoner, in The Village and given the designation Number 6, as Number 2 (Si Dennis Nayland Smith, of the Fu Manchu stories) seeks to learn of secrets left to him, by Mycroft. Sherlock escapes and Number 1 (Winston Churchill) suggests that the designation Number 6 be used for all special and troublesome prisoners, setting the premise for the tv series, with Patrick McGoohan.

When Col Moran and Campion Bond find Moriarty, at the bottom of the Falls, he is carrying an air rifle. This was his weapon of choice for assassination, in "The Adv of the Empty House."

In a panel, in Vauhall, outside Moriarty's HQ, we see a steam powered street sweeper at work. On the building, their is an image of a blindfolded woman, holding her finger to her lips, to say be quiet. Below and to the side is the Masonic compass and square. Inside his office we see a bust of Napoleon, to remind us that he is the Napoleon of Crime. We also see a dictaphone and some large machine, with dials, which could be a calculating machine, ala Babbage's Difference Engine. the building sits near the Thames, as does the modern MI-6 building, which is in Vauxhall. We also see Egyptian references on the building exterior, suggesting the Egyptian connections to Freemasonry, such as the branch said to be behind Cagliostro, aka Giuseppe Balsamo, a con man in European courts, in the mid-late 1700s. Balsamo was said to be the founder of the Egyptian Rite Freemasons. He was a figure of intrigue in Alexandre Dumas' Joseph Balsamo and The Queen's Necklace. Goethe also wrote a comedy about him and The Affair of the Queen's Necklace.

The cover of the issue may be a reference to Detective Weekly, a magazine which published Sexton Blake stories. The inside cover features a pastiche of the National Police Gazette and it somewhat risque content (sexual stuff and bloody murders) The scenes between Homes and Moriarty echo dialogue in "The Final Problem" and "The Empty House", while Moriarty rails at Holmes, from the bottom of the falls, as a :sodomitic, drug addled.." The latter is an allusion to his cocaine use, which formed the basis to Nicholas Meyer's The Seven Per Cent Solution, where Holmes is addicted to cocaine and paranoid, fearing assassins and Moriarty, who was just his math tutor, as a boy. Mycroft Holmes and Watson conspire to lead Holmes to Vienna, where he is treated by Sigmund Freud, then helps him with another of his patients. Meyer did two other homes pastiches, The west end Horror (featuring George Bernard Shaw and Gilbert & Sullivan) and The Canary Trainer, where Holmes has faked his death and is working as a violinist, in the Paris Opera House, during the events of The Phantom of the Opera.

Moriarty's desk has a list of names: Blake, Klimo and Nikola. Blake is most likely Sexton Blake, the detective hero, copied from Holmes, while Klimo is a Guy Boothby character, a detective who commits a jewel robbery to have something to do and Nikola refers to another Boothby character, Dr Nikola, a criminal mastermind with dreams of world domination.

Jess Nevins' annotations contained some discussion as to the parallel between Moriarty as being in MI-5 and the cover of a criminal mastermind and living it out and the life of Kim Philby, via a novel, The Other Side of Silence, that Philby was recruited to infiltrate Soviet intelligence, but became too absorbed into his cover. Philby was the inspiration for the mole, in John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

The murdered polic constable wears the identification number of 813. this is a reference to the Arsene Lupin story, where Lupin bests Sherlock Holmes. It has since gained a mystical reputation and is the name of a society of crime fiction fans, which has 813 members. Francois Truffault also has used the number as an easter egg, in his films, much like Alfred Hitchcock's cameos.

When Griffin crosses Warterloo Bridge, we see a news vendor, with the headline relating to the Titan relief Fund scandal. this seems to be an allusion to the 1898 novel, Futility, by Morgan Robertson (later reissued as the Wreck of the Titan, in 1912), about an opulent ocean liner, the Titan, which carries the cream of society, which hits an iceberg, in the North Atlantic and sinks with all aboard, predicting the sinking of the Titanic, 14 years later. Some claimed clairvoyance, but Robertson denied such nonsense.

When Nemo goes rummaging in a store room, for his countermeasure to Moriarty's war machine, we see a crate that says Peaquod. This is a reference to Moby Dick. Nemo's First Mate, of the Nautilus, is alluded to be Ishmael, of the Pequod, who falls in with him, after the events of the story. we see more of him in Vol 2. A sailor seen on the deck of the Nautilus, shirtless, displaying an arrowhead tattoo, is Broad-Head Jack, a Victorian literary character.

When Nemo find the item he is looking for, a newspaper with the masthead New Lincoln Herald. This was the newspaper of the colonists of Lincoln island, in Verne's Mysterious Island. The Dr Samuel ferguson Expedition, refers to verne's 5 Weeks in a Balloon, which then suggests what the counter-measure is: a hot air balloon. We also see a trunk with the name Fogg, in the background, alluding to Phileas Fogg, of Around the World in 80 Days. There is a misconception that Fogg travels in a balloon, in the story, by those who have never read it, because of the Michael Anderson film, where he does travel in one, as the filmmakers confused the novel with 5 Weeks in a Balloon, or just stole the idea from it. Every reference since, in Hollywood, includes this error. Even The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne has Fogg and Passepartout travelling in the airship, Aurora (Fogg is an ex-agent of the British government, while his cousin, Rebecca, is an active agent, a sort of Victorian Emma Peel).

This issue was delayed a week due to Paul Levitz pulling it, because of an ad for Marvel "Whirling Spray" Syringe, an allusion to a medical device, for vaginal use. This was a reproduction of an actual Victorian ad, for an actual Victorian device, used for feminine hygiene. Levitz thought it was a jab at Marvel and pulled the print run and forced it to be altered to Amaze, instead of Marvel. Even if he believed the reality of the name, he likely felt it would still be seen as a jab at Marvel. Levitz got a lot of heat from the fan and retailer community over this and the pulling of the Bizarro book, because of a scene of baby Kal-El crawling into a microwave and surviving. personally, I understand Levitz's decisions and think he got a bad rap, as those kind of difficult decisions come with leadership and I think his decisions are sound, in the light of responsibility to the company, vs Moore's perceived interference by DC. I don't recall if Moore voiced a protest, but many did in his name, without being asked.

Lot of intrigue here, and a lot of silent panels, with a lot of details for O'Neil. Still, 8 months? Thankfully, we only had to wait two months, for the finale.

Tom Strong #8



If it weren't for King Solomon and Tom's raygun, I'd think someone got confused between Tom Strong and Tom Mix!

Note that Alan Weiss draws a beautiful horse; but, ven more, he knows his Western gear and period firearms. That's a Remington, probably a Model 1858....



The holster rigs are correct, the saddles...look at the detail he adds......the ten-gallon hats......you can tell this is a labor of love, for Weiss.

Creative Team: Alan Moore-writer, Alan Weiss and Chris Sprouse & Al Gordon-art, Todd Klein-letters, Wildstorm FX & Mike Garcia-colors, Scott Dunbier-editor

Synopsis: Out somewhere in the Southwest, Tom Strong and sidekick Gabby Hayes....er, King Solomon, are riding towards a mesa, known as The Devil's Footstool. There is a spiral path leading up the mesa, but there are smooth walls. They come across a man and his son, herding livestack...purple, tentacled livestock. The man and the boy have three eyes. They think the pair of cowboy visitors look odd and are afraid. Tom and Solomon move on to a farmstead, where a woman is working in a garden, hoeing cabbages....



She thinks it is 1850, just after New Year. She doesn't see that her cabbages aren't green, but she sees that something isn't right. They are interrupted by an angry mob, led by the cowboy they previously met. They take to their horse and ride away, the mob in pursuit. They ride into the town and Solomon grabs onto the overhead rail of gateway and swings around and dives on the mob, hurling bodies left and right. Everyone has three eyes. Tom scoops up Solomon and they ride into a saloon/dance hall and then Tom fires his plasma pistol and everyone stops and he tells them it is the 21st Century, not the 19th. He then tells them the entire prospecting town disappeared on New Year's Eve.....



They were taken away by aliens, for some kind of experiment. Thus, the three eyes. The top of the mesa was sheared off and plucked away, hence the smooth walls. They townspeople are disbelieving, until they realize they all had the same dream of a bright light and then they are able to see the third eye, in a mirror. Their livestock and food were provided by the aliens and they realize that they cannot leave the town, because they are dependent on this eco-system, now. The also decide they wouldn't want to live elsewhere, where they would be considered freaks, or be studied. Tom & Solomon agree to keep their secret and leave and the townspeople, at Tom's suggestion, dynamite the trail leading up the mesa, cutting them off from the terrain below.

"Strongmen of America: The Old Skool"-
The kids of the Laundry Street School are on on outing, where they see the museum display, of the old Millennium City Junior High School and the old-time classroom....



No internet? No Smartboards? No Common Core Curriculum? No endless standardized test sessions? Well, three out of four.......

The next thing you know, Sue Blue, a friend of Timmy Turbo (of the Strongmen of America), has been grabebd and dragged inside the old school desk, with the swing up top. Holy Socks! He tells Calculus that they will need to summon the entire Strongmen of America group, to investigate. Both of them.

That night, Timmy and Calculs return, with the rest of the Strongmen: Mason and Fortnum Funt, the two idiots who revived the Modular Man and caused Tom Strong all kinds of trouble. They examine the desk and find that the bottom is just an illusion; it is a portal to a world below. They go inside and follow a staircase down. There, they find a horrific world of giant robot disciplinarian principals and teachers.....



See what it was like, back in my day? And we had to walk to school, barefoot, both ways, through snow and rain, over cactus govered ground, just to be whipped and tortured like that!





Calculus laments that they have no way to contact Tom Strong and Timmy tells him to have faith; Tom will "just know." Sue Blue spots them and calls to them, and the robot sounds the alarm for the truants. Timmy tells them to scatter and he and Calculus run in different directions, while Mason & Fortnum say Funts don't run and end up easily caught. Timmy loses sight of Calcuslus, but finds Sue and they use the chaos to escape the slower robot teachers. They hid in a closet and Sue has Timmy's hand, as she pears out through the crack in the doorway, while Timmy devolves into a slobbering, lovestruck simpleton (short transformation, obviously). Mason & Fortnum are marched off for discipline and Timmy and Sue sneak after and observe. They are made to clean the erasers and write thousands of line. We learn that this world was set up by a physics master, to teac. Timmy and Sue are caught and added to the punishment, but Calculus appears, with Tom Strong....



The head principal tries to appeal to Tom and he talks about (while punching things) the strictest conditions and how it nearly destroyed the desire to learn, by associating it with drudgery. Tom smashes the robots, while Timmy & Sue rally the kids into overthrowing the administration. Timmy praises Calculus for running to get Tom and he says he met him already coming down the stairs, from the desk portal. Tom says he "just knew" there was trouble.

"Sparks"-

Tesla Strong and King Solomon are on San Mageo, in the Baskan Islands, in the middle of a volcanic eruption. Tesla is inside a "gem suit," moving into the lava area, where there are stories of "fire-devils" and salamanders. Tesla sees none of this, as she maneuvers the exo-suit, through the intense heat and lava. Something catches her attention and she calls out, but gets no response. then, fiery hands reach out and grasp the arm of the suit and toss her into the lava, like a judo throw. Tesla recovers and finds herself facing to fiery beings....



Tesla tries to communicate, but they attack her. She suffers damage to the suit and tries to raise Solomon, but gets no response. the suit develops a crack and starts leaking coolant fluid. She is in a bad way and needs help, but it comes in a strange form....



Tesla fears the worse, but the figure in the golden armor throws aside an attacker and says something to it, in its language and the fire-devils leave, as if dismissed. Tesla tries communicating with the being, which is able to mimic some of her words, including her name. He kisses her suit, then departs. The volcanic activity subsides and Tesla crawls out and regains contact with Solomon. The crisis is over, but the rescuer made quite an impression on Tesla.

Thoughts: The opening tale is pretty much a standalone adventure, as Tom encounters more weirdness, then fills us in on what happened, back in 1850, resulting in the entire town being taken away by aliens, for experiments and then dropped back on top of their mesa. It's a classic sci-fi tale, with a Western flavor. it plays to Alan Weiss' strengths and love of Westerns. Moore was always good about catering his stories to the interests and abilities of his artistic collaborators. If they like weird, he gives them weird. If they like Westerns, he will give them a Western story. Other than that, this is fairly unremarkable, except, Moore is just teasing us. Tom will be returning to this community, further on down the road. This isn't just "The Lone Ranger-meets-The Twilight Zone."

The Strongmen tale focuses on the "kid gang" of Timmy Turbo, Sue Blue, Calculus and Mason and Fortnum Funt, as seen previously. Here, Moore gets to do a humorous kid adventure, centered around childhood perceptions of school, as a prison sentence, for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 12 years. it's perfect children's literary material, as what kid doesn't want to read about a school uprising? Atthe same time, it serves as satirical commentary about educational methods that stress route learning over discovery and how it de-motivates children to learn, when taken too far. This is an old debate and has only gotten worse as education has become politicized and corporatized. It was bad enough when you had to learn your multiplication tables via mass repetition, than, say, Multiplication Rock.....



That's the original broadcast version, first shown on The Curiosity Shop, which led to Multiplication Rock, shown as bumpers between cartoon shows, which grew into Schoolhouse Rock. That was education that was fun and drew you in, making you want to learn. They expanded into Grammar Rock, then America Rock, which covered US History, with focus on the Bicentennial celebrations of the country's beginnings, and a few other ey areas, like immigration and women's suffrage, though not minority experience and some of the less than noble elements of history (as witnessed in "Elbow Room," which describes the theory of Manifest Destiny, but doesn't address the horrible reality of genocide and forced removal of the native population, not to mention slavery). Then, Science Rock was added. The creators learned how effective the cartoons were from teachers, who told stories of humming, as they administered the US Constitution test, or kids singing their multiplication tables. Congressional offices asked for copies of "The Three-Ring Circus" to explain the branches of government to new staffers, as well as "I'm Just A Bill, " to explain the legislative process.

Moore shows that too much "discipline" is stifling of creativity and the joys of learning through discovery, though he doesn't show that too loose a method can devolve into just play for its own sake, rather than learning, which has been a criticism of some alternative methods, such as Montessori Schools and those where such environments ends up not actually teaching science, language and mathematics, to any real extent. The key is to find the right balance and the teachers that can bring both discipline and discovery. Good luck finding anyone to fund that.

The last story is a Tesla Strong solo adventure, where she meets a fiery knight, in shining armor and he makes an impression, before he goes away. it mirrors old Silver Age stories of scientific exploration that leads to encounters with strange creatures; in this case, fire beings, who are reminiscent of the Lava Men of Marvel Comics. The creature will also return and Moore will further the Silver Age homages, in modern trappings.

This kind of encapsulates what I love about Tom Strong: there is a variety of stories, mixing old fashioned pulp adventure and heroic fiction, with humor and a bit of commentary on modern society, all in an entertaining and engaging fashion. There is nostalgia for the old timers (like me, even then), something different for the newcomers, and just plain old fashioned good storytelling, with a modern gloss. It is timeless, while paying tribute to the past. Where else in comics were you going to find cowboy stories, kid gang stories, and scientific adventures, as well as action-adventure and pseudo-superheroes? Not in Youngblood, that is for sure.

Next, Promethea faces a massed attack!